In the lead up to UFC 220, heavyweight title challenger Francis Ngannou has weighed in on the most recent controversy involving US President Donald Trump.
‘A Shame for America’: Francis Ngannou Criticizes Trump for Alleged “s**thole” Comment
In response to a question by MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani, regarding incendiary comments Trump allegedly made in relation to African countries and Haiti last week, Ngannou asserted that the president was ‘a shame for America’, emphasising that many countries look to America as an exemplar for ‘building their own countr[ies]’.
Ngannou, who was born in Cameroon and emigrated to France in 2013 before recently relocating to Las Vegas, went on to express a fondness for former US president Barack Obama and civil rights activist Martin Luther King, before detailing his experience and aspirations as an immigrant.
This is not the first time that Trump has drawn the ire of professional athletes. In September last year at a rally in Huntsville, Alabama, the commander in chief sounded off on NFL players who kneeled during the national anthem in protest of racial inequality and police brutality – earning sharp denunciations from a number of players and prompting much wider participation in the movement. In the same month, Trump also sparred with NBA greats Stephen Curry and Lebron James on twitter, after Curry declined an invitation to visit the White House.
On Saturday, Ngannou will attempt to stop incumbent champion Stipe Miocic from breaking the all-time heavyweight title defence record, and supplant him as the baddest man on the planet.
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